Literacy takes center stage

STOCKTON - Activity swirled and excited voices blared in the jammed TEAM Charter School cafeteria Tuesday afternoon, but one quiet soul sat alone at a table obliviously buried in a book.

Roger Phillips

STOCKTON - Activity swirled and excited voices blared in the jammed TEAM Charter School cafeteria Tuesday afternoon, but one quiet soul sat alone at a table obliviously buried in a book.

"I like to learn reading," said 7-year-old Valentina Jauregui, a second-grade student. "I like books."

TEAM Charter, a second-year K-4 school that moved to the eastern fringe of downtown in 2012, is spending this first week back from winter break reminding its students about the joy and importance of reading.

It is doing so with a series of "Hip Hop, You Don't Stop Reading!" assemblies staged by With Our Words and Hip Hop Congress. By Thursday, each of TEAM's 260 students will have attended one of the assemblies, which feature spoken-word, rap and dance performances.

"It's important for our kids to see that local people definitely have talents and artistry, and that our skills and talents are equivalent to anyone in the nation," TEAM Principal Dillon Delvo said.

TEAM Charter targets children from low-income families and is focused on tackling generational poverty. Nearly all of TEAM's students qualify for free or reduced-cost lunch.

Delvo said TEAM's mission is social justice, and the surest route to achieving that objective is literacy. Many of his school's students are below grade level in reading, Delvo said, but he also said many of the children are showing rapid growth this year.

At the end of Tuesday's assembly for TEAM's second- through fourth-grade children, the students lined up at a long table piled high with books. Each child received three of the books to take home to add to his or her personal library, courtesy of Fat City Books.

Little Valentina sat by herself poring over the books she had chosen: "The Lion King," "Beauty and the Beast" and "Lady and the Tramp." She had seen the movies. She wanted to read the books.

With Our Words' executive director, Tama Brisbane, became emotional as she observed the quiet little girl and the other more visibly and audibly animated children.

"All of this chaos around books is just immensely gratifying," she said. "These kids aren't after candy bars. This is about books - old-fashioned, crack-the-spine books."